Its all about Selling...

Crime Train, Portland Creep, Empty Buses, 19th Century Technology, Anti-Car and so. For anyone who is an advocate of proper urban planning or effective transportation choices are well familiar with slogans like these, they are well used by opponents to paint a disparaging picture of transportation choices and planning.

The problem is these well financed campaigns are designed to one thing, to turn public point of view to their way of thinking. Some do it for the money while others do it for their ideology. The problem is that the other side is doing a heck of a good job of marketing their point of view and advocates of transportation and planning choices seem to fail.

Motivational Speaker Zig Ziglar has a saying that everything involves selling and that everyone is a salesperson whether they think that their job involves it or not. Advocates need to realize that they too need to work on their sales presentations whether it is to a city council, newspaper, blog or any other forum that they may find themselves talking to others.

Right now here in the Portland suburbs of Clackamas County their is a heated battle for county commissioners. Radio ads and billboards are being bought proclaiming that three candidates will stop "Portland Creep". They are using this term to demonize urban planning and transportation in the Portland area saying that the goal is to ruin the little perfection called Clackamas county. Now a large segment of Clackamas County is rural and the thought of additional density is to them is worse than

Smart Growth Opponants Run Against Portland's Pro-Urbanism Policies
"Portland Creep" and the Density Debate

While you can say all you want about how negative they are (yes they are) but what are they doing? They are effectively selling to certain segment of the population that sees the density of Portland as something that is very undesirable. While this group is well funded by conservative interest, they play on emotions and are good at making Portland sound bad. It will be interesting to see the elections results.

In Portland, the anti-MAX light rail forces have done an excellent job of demonizing MAX as the crime train. Now the east side MAX does have some issues but Gesham was a problem community before MAX even came along. But it has done the job, any time something happens anywhere near a MAX station the media always mention it is near a MAX station and the words "crime train" will show up in the comments within moments.

Another one you always hear no matter where you are is the argument rail is "19 century technology". The opponents have done such a good job of painting anything rail as outdated technology that "19th century technology" the first worlds out of months of many. You could go all day long on how the automobile is also 19th century and in some ways 18th century technology but it doesn't matter, rail is the outdated "19th century technology".

Another comparison is the Tea Party and Occupy. The Tea Party has done an excellent job of getting people to join their way of thinking because they are doing a better job of selling themselves. You do not have to agree with them but you have to respect the organization that has been created and instantly had a major effect on the 2010 election. Occupy meanwhile made lots of noise in October, made lots of enemies in many cities but has not become a major force. You don't have to like an organization to learn from what they do right.

Then again maybe if advocates would stop fighting among themselves, yes you are going to have disagreements after all we are all human but you must have a unified voice if you want to get your message across. Fortunately when it comes to public votes transit still wins a majority of the time, but that luck is going to run out without an organized voice that knows how to sell.

Would you take this job?

Take this job description and see what you think would be a reasonable wage for this position: 

You are in charge of a company that takes in millions of dollars and provides a service across a large area. You are in charge of dozens if not hundreds of employees many of which will dislike you not matter how good of a leader you are. 

You are also responsible for large budget and have to balance the amount of service you can provide with the amount of dollars you have. You will also answer to politicians many of them having no clue about what your service is but of course want to look good to the people that paid for their office and have to walk a fine line between keeping them happy and doing the right thing. 

Finally, you will have a vocal minority that will attack you no matter what you do because you are not providing them service to their front door, your budget doesn't have enough funds. They will hate you, post on blogs, blog on newspaper articles, and demonize you at every chance. 

Sounds like heaven doesn't it? 

Most people will probably already figure out that I am talking about the head of a transit agency. It really doesn't matter which transit agency because it is true for most of them. Some have a bigger problem in one area than the other but in general its a pretty thankless job. 

First of all, would you want this position and how much would be willing, or how little would you be willing to take in order to have the job? 

Now lets to a little more comparison. If this was private sector job how much will you be getting paid. Now everyone has heard about those overprice CEO's that are just raking in the money. However, most CEO's do are not the ones you hear about all the time. They run small to medium sized businesses that deal with the same number of employees and budget as the typical transit agency. 

Some of these CEO's are better than others. After all their humans and have their own sets of good points and bad points. However, for the most part if they get to this level they do it because of hard work and dedication. Yes some of them get there because of nepotism but they are the minority and usually have issues unless they too have worked up through the ranks. 

The problem is, for the position of head of a transit agency you want the best and the brightest. You need the person that cannot only handled the budget, surround themselves with people that can get things done, and deal with all the other distractions the CEO of a private company may not have to deal with. 

Why should someone take this position when they can go to the private sector, make more money and probably deal with less BS from the outside than running a transit agency.

So how much should a transit agency head be paid? 

This Week in Amtrak

Image by Patrick Rasenberg via Flickr

This Week at Amtrak; January 11, 2010



A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from



United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute



1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail info@unitedrail.org • http://www.unitedrail.org





Volume 7, Number 2



Founded over three decades ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and other cities. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.



URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.



1) VIA Rail Canada is superb at doing it. The freight railroads do it like it’s an everyday occurrence. Amtrak, on the other hand, can never seem to get it right.



We’re referring, of course at this time of year, to operating trains in severe winter weather. While things have mostly been humming on the Northeast Corridor, it’s been a far different story out in flyover country where the Empire Builder operates between Chicago and Seattle, Washington/Portland, Oregon.



It’s been a while since Amtrak consistently got a train over the road anywhere near to keeping a schedule, and even running two trains in a row.



The problem has mostly been blamed on malfunctioning air systems from the locomotives. Without a working air system, there are no brakes on a train. (The air system we’re referring to has nothing to do with the hotel power from the locomotives to the rest of the train which provides heat for the train.)



Some Empire Builders have arrived nearly a day late, some not at all, some have only traveled a part of the route before being annulled. Word is, even Amtrak’s host railroad for the Empire Builder, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, has banned the Builder from its infrastructure until Amtrak can prove it can get a train from Point A to Point B without having a locomotive failure and fouling the main line which has heavy freight traffic.



All of this begs the question, “why?” since Amtrak has had nearly 40 winters to figure things like this out.



Some folks have speculated it’s because Amtrak tries to have an all-weather locomotive fleet, which operates in desert heat in the Southwest as well as it does in blizzard conditions in North Dakota. As with anything else which tries to be all things to all people, the inevitable failure occurs.



Some folks have speculated Amtrak’s mechanical department just isn’t up to the job, and does what it can with the budget it has to work with each year.



Some folks have speculated Amtrak just doesn’t care; if it doesn’t have anything directly to do with the NEC, then it’s not important.



But, looking at VIA Rail Canada, which generally operates under some of the most severe winter weather conditions in the world, VIA rarely has Amtrak’s winter weather problems. And, VIA is a smaller company, has fewer resources, and often makes do with older equipment.



The freight railroads in the same severe winter weather always manager to get trains with dozens and dozens of heavily loaded freight cars down the track, also using air brake systems, and they don’t have these problems. BNSF, like Amtrak, operates from the extreme northern tier of the country to the extreme southern tier, and needs locomotives, too, which can work in extremes of heat and cold.



If VIA can do it, and BNSF can do it, and Union Pacific can do it, and CSX and Norfolk Southern and Kansas City Southern can all do it, along with Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, why can’t Amtrak?



As said in this space before, we know there are some dedicated transportation people at Amtrak who want the railroad to run right, no matter what the weather forecast. Why aren’t these people given the budget and resources they need to get the job done? Amtrak begs for money every year from Congress and the federal treasury, laying out priorities. Why isn’t locomotive reliability outside of the Northeast Corridor in the winter a priority?



These are the times which try mens’ souls, when the harsh realities of Mother Nature go up against the needs of mortal man. These are the times when the professional railroaders, who go to sleep thinking about railroading and then wake up the next morning thinking about the same thing, need the resources to do their jobs. If Amtrak wants to continue to promote itself as the custodian of the next generation of passenger trains and thinks it’s going to be the first choice as the operator of the new high speed rail systems, rational people making those decisions are going to wonder why Amtrak, which is operating conventional rail on a system which has been in place for over 150 years, can’t figure out how to make that system work. If Amtrak can’t get conventional rail right, how will it ever get high speed rail right?



2) Where are you on the Amtrak spectrum? Are you a True Believer, willing to accept anything Amtrak and the National Association of Railroad Passengers says, at face value? Are you always willing to give Amtrak more and more money, without accountability, just because it’s Amtrak?



Are you more of a pragmatist, and believe in the business of passenger rail, knowing at one time it was a sane, profitable business, and there is no reason why in the future it can’t return to that status?



Are you convinced the days of passenger rail are gone, and everyone should enjoy driving their private vehicle down crowded highways or the only other option for public transportation is airplanes?



Which one are you? Do you fit into any of those categories, or, perhaps are you something of a blend of two or more of those categories?



How do you see the future of passenger rail? Are we on the cusp of renaissance, or near the end of the line? Is that light at the end of the tunnel an oncoming passenger train you welcome, or the halogen headlights of an overpriced SUV getting five gallons of gas to the mile of transportation?



It’s time to start choosing sides. More and more passenger rail publications are openly questioning the actions/lack of actions of Amtrak. Columnists who were once reliable Amtrak Apologists are now apologizing to their readers for taking so long to see the truth about Amtrak, and its lack of motivation.



So, are you going to sit on the sidelines and kibbitz about what the final colors of pre-merger Seaboard Air Line Railroad passenger locomotives were, or are you going to figure out how to take some action and demand better passenger rail transportation in this country, whether or not it’s from Amtrak?



Politics in Washington are in a turmoil, and there is likely to be a huge sea change in Congress at the end of this year. No matter who is charge in Washington, it’s time to express your displeasure with how things are with passenger rail, and demand better oversight, and, most importantly, demand someone, somewhere, develop a coherent national surface transportation plan.



As long as everyone just sits around and waits for something to happen, nothing is likely to happen. Amtrak seems content to consume its annual free federal and state monies without any demonstration of progress to create more or better passenger trains. Amtrak needs some major prodding, and it needs prodding from someone who can force change and inspire vision at Amtrak.



What are you going to do about it?







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J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

brucerichardson@unitedrail.org

http://www.unitedrail.org

Report on America's Crumbling Infrastructure...

Article on the situation with America's Infrastructure. Notice also that the pro-highway, anti-transit faction was able to remove Paul Weyrich's "The Case for Public Transportation" out of the report.

America's crumbling transportation system: Back channel political gamesmanship and the national security implications